


home

by daretogobeyondtheunknown



Category: (여자)아이들 | (G)I-DLE
Genre: F/F, reflective
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-12
Updated: 2021-02-12
Packaged: 2021-03-18 10:27:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 814
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29367033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daretogobeyondtheunknown/pseuds/daretogobeyondtheunknown
Summary: The muggy air reminds Shuhua of home.
Relationships: Seo Soojin/Yeh Shuhua
Comments: 3
Kudos: 44





	home

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: Please note that this is a fictitious piece of work based off the dynamics of factual individuals. It is in no way meant to speculate or draw assumptions on the personal lives of these individuals.

The muggy air reminds Shuhua of home. 

Some nights, the familiarity feels Godsent, calming the dark lonely feelings that nip at her heart, sharp and unwanted. Other nights it burns like the Devil’s touch, harrowing and insidious. It is either a blessing or a curse with no room for neutrality. 

Years ago, cloaked in the weight of loneliness, surrounded by lights and sounds that echoed like nothing more than static in her ears, Shuhua would escape to the practice studio. There, hours after the others had left, she would find solace. There, exhausted and dripping sweat, it was impossible to distinguish the tears from the fatigue. There, it was easy to sooth the wounds that bled, the honest expressions of pain in a language no one could understand was her only salve. 

Those nights she yearned for home - for the comforts of her mother’s arms and the scent of the peach blossoms in the spring. It would be easy: to give up, to go home. Yet, each night, alone and tempted by the sirens that beckoned her to return, Shuhua knew, deep down, answering its call would never quell the ache in her chest. 

Eventually things got better as they always do. The aches dulled, the grasp of the claws not absent but more feather light. Only on the worst of nights, when the exhaustion of the day crept into her bones, laced with the vitriol of the masked critic, did Shuhua find herself slinking into the familiarity of the practice room, dancing until everything felt numb.

Then they debuted and it came with a high like nothing Shuhua had ever experienced.

The endorphins were intoxicating and leaving venues late at night, bombarded by a wall of muggy air, felt almost like the warm embrace of her mother’s arms. She had done it. All the late nights, alone and aching, had culminated into this. Nothing could dissolve her high or steal her feet out from underneath her. Nothing perhaps, except for the temptation that comes at the end of any manic high, a temptress whispering empty lies into the shell of her ear. 

Tantalizing.

Seductive.

In the dead of night, it would sneak up, fingers dragging across her skin. It itched and it ached. Shackled by the darkness of her dreams, Shuhua could never escape as those fingers, icy yet blistering, wrapped about her neck and squeezed. Those nights, she would wake, fingers clawing at the invisible snare, the stale air chilling as it kissed the sweat that dripped down the hollow of her back. 

Her honest expressions of pain, uttered into the wind, no longer worked and the wounds only reopened with each small breath. 

“Shu?” The voice was unsteady, encumbered by a thick blanket of sleep. 

It was beautiful.

“Shhh,” Shuhua whispered as she settled back down, lips forming a trembling smile as the arms that had fallen to her waist crawled back up to hold her once more. Fingers swept lethargic circles across her back, slowing momentarily before sputtering to life, dipping in and out of slumber. It was nothing like the demons that lurked beneath the lids of her eyes or in the thickness of the night. No, this was warm, beautiful, and...

“Bad dream?” The words were slow and poorly enunciated. 

Shuhua nodded, her ear settling atop the slow, rhythmic heartbeat. Muggy air filled the small room, seeping in from the window Shuhua had left propped open. “Mhm. Keep me safe?” The words peppered across sticky skin and Shuhua felt the sharp intake followed by a shaky exhale. 

“Always.”

“My hero.” The snort that followed was adorable. 

Time trickled on, the only noise coming from the hum of the fan as it muffled out the early morning city traffic on the street below. The fingers had ground to a halt and from the steady in and out that made her head rise and fall, Shuhua knew Soojin had fallen asleep. 

Soojin. 

If the late nights alone whispering her lonely thoughts while wiping away sweat infused tears had once been her salve, Soojin was the stitching that sewed together the jagged cuts. She was the steady hands that held her when shock settled in. She was the sun behind every rain cloud. She was the air Shuhua needed desperately to fill her lungs. 

The muggy air still reminds Shuhua of home.

It reminds her of her parents, of her sisters, of her friends. It reminds her of peaches and of words that roll off her tongue like honey not coarse sand. It is still either a blessing or a curse with no room for neutrality. The only difference is now, no matter how high or low Shuhua might swing, no matter how tightly the claws might squeeze or how softly the temptress might whisper, Soojin always squeezes back, chasing away the call of the siren with her own gentle whispers. 


End file.
